The Dude wrote:It took me 20 years, but I've finally seen every cable episode.

WOW! I still haven't managed that!

Since I live near a university now, I decided to take advantage of their library and I discovered a book published just this year called "In the Peanut Gallery With Mystery Science Theater 3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology, and the Culture of Riffing." So far it's pretty interesting! The opening essay was actually by the director of Hobgoblins, talking about how and why the movie was made and how he credits MST3K with making it more enjoyable than watching it on its own and giving the film an audience and extended life that it never would have had otherwise. It's got some pretty funny bits, like him explaining that the hobgoblin puppets shook throughout the film because the crew member who "operated" them was just released from a mental hospital and had the shakes from the Thorazine she had to take.

It's inspired me to rewatch Manos, which I'm actually about to pop into my laptop right now!

ETA: So this MST3K book I'm reading? I just read an essay in it today that featured several paragraphs focusing on one Ms. Cleolina Jones!

A few weeks ago CSI: Miami had a killer who put acid in a parchute, which is fitting since David Caruso's acting is about on par with a Coleman Francis movie.

The box sets have improved so much since Shout took over. Everyone has at least one decent extra and interview.

Rifftrax is redoing Manos on a Fathom broadcast in August. I never saw CT's redo of Santa Claus vs. The Martians and I know Rifftrax will repeat jokes, but I'm sure they wouldn't do it for Manos. And a movie THAT bad.

Manos isn't actually my favorite episode either, because it is so incredibly bad, as you said. However, I will forever love it because of the circumstances under which I first watched it. I watched it with a huge group of friends when I was an undergrad in college. One of my friends, Abra, and I had a class that semester where the two of us and one other girl were the ONLY people who ever talked, so there were loooong stretches of silence after the three of us finished saying everything we'd had to say. So the day after we watched Manos together, we were sitting in class during another one of those long stretches of nothing and I looked over at Abra and muttered "Manos, the hands of fate" like they did during the long stretches of nothing in the movie, and she burst out laughing right there in class. Everyone was staring at her like she'd lost her mind; it was hilarious!

Also, I will never pass up an opportunity to point out that Torgo is on the state seal on my Bachelor's degree. This is the actual scan of my actual diploma.

I love the Manos episode. It was one of the first episodes of MST3K that I ever saw, and I've seen it so many times at this point that I practically have all of the jokes memorized. The movie IS incredibly bad and slow-moving, but I still think the episode itself is fun. I have seen better MST3K episodes, but I'll always have a soft spot for it.

Every time I see a hand get burnt or hurt on TV or in a movie, my mind immediately jumps to "CharredFINGAAAAHS!"

I had been watching the show since Season 2 (Ring of Terror being my first episode) and Manos represented something of a culmination of their premise to see the worst movie ever made. Watching it unfold you knew it was the deffinative movie in their catalog. I showed the episode to everyone. It was as much if not even more about how bad the movie was.

nazlan wrote:They're redoing Manos because a film preservationist recently came across a work print of the movie that was in far superior condition previously used for either the original MST3K episode or the DVD.

Quick, someone store it in a warm, moist, salty place such as a cheese factory or your mouth while I call 1-800-LET-ROT!

I respect Manos as a benchmark of bad movies, but yeah, it's not an episode I particularly gravitate to. Although it's been a long time since I've re-watched it.

I'm restarting my quest to see every episode. For random reasons,I'm starting with season 8. Revenge of the Creature and Leach Woman seem really familiar,as if I'd actually caught them on Sci-Fi. Even though I dig the Ridley Scott-esque look of the SOL's bridge,sometimes it's too dang dark to see anything.

The latest box set was a bit of a disappointment. I am a big fan of Fugitive Alien and The Sword and the Dragon and I've had the bootlegs of those for years. So the excitement of getting them in an official release wasn't accompanied by any reacquaintance with the titles. Plus being the final releases of the Sandy Frank and Russo-Finish Troika there isn't much in the way of special features because its all been pretty much said.

The Sandy Frank interview in the special features was also a disappointment. He barely talks about Gamera and MST3K. The El Santo extras are the only ones that have any umph.